---
title: "Keep the domain name yours · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/hosting-and-network/domain-renewal
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Keep the domain name yours

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Hosting and network](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/hosting-and-network)
- Rule: Renew the domain automatically, lock it against transfers and protect the registrar account with two-factor login. A lapsed or stolen domain takes down the site and its email.
- How: Turn on auto-renew with a payment method that does not expire soon, or pay several years ahead. Turn on the registrar's transfer lock. Use a role address, not one person's mailbox, as the account contact. Protect the account with two-factor login, as in [offer two-factor login](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/access-and-accounts/two-factor-login). Watch the expiry date from outside, as you do for certificates.
- Check: A `whois example.com` or RDAP query shows `clientTransferProhibited` and an expiry date over 60 days away. The monitor alerts when it drops under 30 days.

Example:

```sh
whois example.com | grep -iE 'expir|status'
curl -s https://rdap.org/domain/example.com | jq '.status, .events'
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers website playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/hosting-and-network/domain-renewal`.

- Previous: [Be reachable over IPv6](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/hosting-and-network/ipv6)
- [Hosting and network](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/hosting-and-network)